Out to Pasture

So Dad is slowly retiring.
First in spirit -- he stopped the daily drive into work the last Friday in May, but is using up some of his leave through the month of June.
Second in ceremony -- Wednesday his boss threw a lovely dinner for him and a coworker retiring together, after having joined the company at about the same time 19 years ago, and commenting that they were in fact the first two people to stick around long enough to retire from his company. Their loyalty was well rewarded. With crab cakes.
Third in blood -- I'd been working with my Dad's family since January or so to try and arrange coming out sometime in June to celebrate along with us. One of his brothers, Dennis, flew in from California, and his sister Pat with her husband George came down from Chicago to surprise him yesterday. Of course, when they made their reservations months ago, we didn't know it would be the day after his dinner, so what a great week, timing-wise. Haven't seen Dennis since 2006, and while I saw Pat & George earlier that year on a trip from Ohio, they've not met the kids, who were in rare ham-it-up form.
Unfortunately, all this family relations is hard on a three-year-old's cranium, as Ryan asked after his bath, "Can I go downstairs and say g'night to Grandad's kids?"